


A Work in Progress

by Bethx



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Slow Build, lots of jace and simon questioning themselves, tons of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-22 21:11:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12490936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethx/pseuds/Bethx
Summary: It wasn't like Jace planned on falling in love with Simon. Hell, if you'd asked him one month ago when he first met him if he'd even say more than five words at a time to the guy, he'd have laughed in your face. But along the way, something changed. -Takes place before the end of season 2A-





	1. Chapter 1

Jace had met Simon Lewis one month ago. His first opinion of him wasn't the best. To him, Simon was like the annoying kid brother that tagged along but you never really wanted there. But Clary did. And to deny his instant attraction to Clary would just be irresponsible. He knew that if he wanted to be with her, he had to tolerate him. It started off slow; Jace wouldn't be  _as_ mad when Simon followed them like a lost puppy. His face wouldn't scrunch up in disgust so much whenever the mundane spoke. 

But then, suddenly, out of what felt like nowhere, Simon wasn't a mundane anymore. He could tell how it affected Clary, like she in a way, had lost her best friend. And Jace did everything he could to help. But, it felt as if no matter what he did, there would always be that small ping of guilt in the back of his mind. He knew that it wasn't his fault, really Jace had nothing to do with it. If anyone was to blame it was Alec, or even Izzy, but he'd never say that out loud, especially not to his siblings. They didn't care anyways. 

Jace couldn't pin point the exact moment he realized his feelings for Simon were anything but, well, his idea of normal. But it happened, somehow, and all Jace could think about was the newly turned vampire. At first he pushed it aside, not wanting to admit anything. Whenever someone asked him what was going on, the boy pushed them away, simply saying something along the lines of "stress" or "I'm tired". 

But Alec knew from the moment he saw the way Jace looked at Simon now, it wasn't how he used to. He could feel something different in Jace, almost like when they were kids. Jace always had this optimistic way about him when they were younger, hard to believe now, of course. But for some reason, when Simon was there, Alec felt that through his Parabatai. Alec knew when he approached this he had to do it cautiously. 

 

* * *

 

They were in the weapons room, picking out what they were going to spar with that afternoon when Alec decided that he should ask. Taking a deep breath, Alec put his seraph blade down and looked at his Parabatai. "So, how've you been?" To say the question threw Jace off was really quite an understatement. He knew that when Alec asked a question like that, there was typically a deeper meaning. 

"I've been good...what about you...how's Magnus?" Jace raised his eyebrow as he posed the question, very unsure of how this conversation was going. The blonde grabbed a sword from the holder and gripped it tightly.

"I'm..I'm good. Magnus is good." Alec was going to ask, he really was, but the look on Jace's face showed him that maybe he wasn't ready, maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask him just yet. Plus how weird would it be to ask your friend "Hey why do you seem so happy and odd lately? Especially around Simon?" It would be too much, Alec could tell. "You uh...you ready to spar?" Alec smiled before gripping his own seraph blade and walking into the training room, knowing Jace would follow. He did, of course, but as his younger Parabatai walked behind him, questions were running through his mind. It wasn't necessarily weird of Alec to ask him that question, but it usually had a context. Like during a battle, when he knew Jace was hurt. Never like that. He made the decision to push it away, like he had been for the past couple of weeks. After sparring, he would feel better. He always felt better after sparring. 


	2. Chapter 2

To say Simon's life had changed in the past month would be the understatement of the century. It seemed like one day his life was normal, he was in a band, madly in love with his best friend who had no clue, and of course, didn't need blood to survive. No matter what, it always came back to that. _Vampire_. Even thinking the word made the boy shudder. How could it be that just one month ago none of this even existed outside of movies and stories, but now suddenly was his reality? Simon would never forget the night it started. All he had wanted to do was be there for Clary, help her through everything that was happening. And then Camille happened and everything was different.

Simon could tell that people looked at him differently, treated him differently. He used to just be Clary's annoying mundane friend but now he was something different; a _downworlder_.  He had become a monster. And no matter how many times Clary tried to tell him it was okay, it wasn't. How was it okay? How was only being able to go outside at night okay? How was his mothers face when she saw him drinking blood from a dead rat okay? How was it okay that every time he was even in the same room as a human he had the urge to bite them? No, none of this was okay, not even a little bit. 

But somehow amongst the madness and the turmoil of everything that was happening, Simon  _felt_ okay. At least, sometimes. They might've been far and few in between, but when he did feel okay, it went away really fast. Every time he caught himself looking at the blonde shadowhunter he would turn away, tell himself that it was simply because of the blood. Shadowhunter blood was pure, and as a vampire of course that would appeal to him, right? But if that was the case why didn't he look at Clary that way? Or Alec or Izzy? No, it had to be the blood. Of course it was the blood. 

* * *

 

Simon was spending a lot of time at the Institute, he felt safe there, truly. Even with the war approaching, Valentine becoming a bigger threat every single moment, Simon was safe there. The sudden noise awoke him from the deep thoughts that were plaguing his mind. "Hey stranger." Clary stood behind him. As the vampire turned he was faced with her long curly red hair, her bright face always a welcome sight. Stepping forward, Clary pulled Simon into a hug. 

"You ready?" Once the question was asked, Simon's face showed his confusion, ready? Right, they had plans. 

With a smile, Simon nodded and started walking forward. "Of course Fray. Always ready for you." 

* * *

Clary noticed. How could she not notice? Simon was her best friend, practically her brother. And well, she knew. The girl could tell when Simon was acting differently, and this was a prime example of that. But she couldn't push him, he was already going through so much, if she brought it up, who knew what would happen? 

They walked mainly in silence to the Hunter's Moon. Common ground, Clary thought. At least she could get something small to eat, and Simon would be able to as well. Every few minutes, the red head would sneak a peak at the boy next to her. It was weird how normal this felt. Like nothing had really changed in the past month. Simon was walking next to her, looking straight ahead with the corners of his mouth turned upwards, his hands shoved in his pockets. Normal. As if that was the word Clary was using to describe this moment. 

Clary stumbled, slightly bumping into Simon, not realizing he'd stopped walking. "You okay there Fray?" The vampire smiled, his fangs showing ever so slightly. The boy opened the door for her, allowing her to step inside. It wasn't long before the two were seated at the bar, Simon enjoying his drink while Clary nibbled on the fries she had ordered. There weren't many people here tonight, really only a couple seelie's giggling to themselves in the corner. 

 The shadowhunter smiled back, putting down the fry she had been pretending to eat. Taking a deep breath the girl began to speak. "I feel like I need to be honest with you. I didn't...I didn't ask you to come out with me tonight because I wanted to see you. I mean, I did want to see you, that's not what I mean, but are you okay?" After she spoke, Clary couldn't even look at Simon. She felt horrible. She'd asked him here for ulterior motives and there she was blurting it out. 

"Hey," Simon spoke slowly as he placed his pointer under her chin, lifting her face to meet his gaze. "I'm okay. I mean, in spite of everything that's happening, I'm okay." Offering her a small smile, Simon hoped that he'd fooled her. The thing was, he was okay. At least sometimes. With Jace. No, not with Jace. Definitely not with Jace. Clary nodded slowly. She knew there was more, there had to be more going on. But, he wasn't ready, clearly. And, with everything, the last thing she figured he needed was to be pushed into speaking. Instead, she smiled and went back to her fries, the two of them barely saying another word the rest of the night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm brand new to writing on here but feel free to leave comments and such to let me know how you feel about this! Also you can follow me on twitter @shadowhuntrash or tumblr shadowhunttrash.tumblr.com
> 
>  
> 
> Also next chapter; Alec and Clary talk!


	3. Chapter 3

As Alec sat across the table from the red head, he instantly regretted asking her to meet him. Everything about her annoyed him. But he knew that the only other person who knew Jace as well as him was Clary, and if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he'd have to speak with her no matter how much it killed him. 

Taking a sip of his coffee, the taller shadowhunter looked at her. "Look, I'm not here because I want to be friends, or whatever. We need to talk about something."

Clary instantly nodded as she put her mug down. "I kind of figured there was something. What is it? Another demon attack? I did something wrong like normal?"

Alec sighed rolling his eyes at the girl in front of him. "Not everything's about you Fray. Have you noticed anything weird about Jace? Like that he's acting weird or something?" 

The girl thought for a moment. Something weird with Jace? Not really. Something weird with Simon being around Jace? absolutely. Shrugging her shoulders, Clary answered. "I mean, isn't Jace always kind of acting off? When was the last time he was acting normally?" 

Alec's eyes turned into daggers, practically looking right through Clary. He shook his head "Look, something's going on with him. And I know that you have to have noticed it. You're his sister, Clary. Don't you like, I don't know, sense that kind of stuff?"

Clary couldn't help but chuckle. "It's not like we have some weird telepathy thing going on, Alec. You're his parabatai, shouldn't that technically mean you can sense it?" 

Sighing, Alec replied. "I can sense _something_ , I just don't know what it is. But he's definitely off. Look, can you just keep an eye out, maybe? Like if you see anything you'll try and tell me?" 

Clary nodded slowly. She couldn't believe she was actually agreeing to practically spy on her brother and best friend for Alec, but who knows, maybe it would help?

* * *

The rest of the day was well, eventful, to say the least. Every time that Jace did something she found herself noting it down in her memory to relay to Alec later. Maybe he had been right, maybe there was something off about Jace, it was surly starting to feel that way. It was mid afternoon when she found herself in the weapons room, pretending to study while Jace worked on some new sparring techniques. 

Jace wiped the sweat from his brows as he turned to look over at his sister, sitting in the corner of the room with a book. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought that she was actually trying to be sneaky. He didn't have to be a well trained shadowhunter to see her look up from her book every few seconds to study him instead of the book. 

"You know, Clary, if you want to talk to me, you don't have to sit in the corner. You can just talk, right?" Jace put his knife down before walking over to his sister. The look on her face only confirmed his suspicions that she'd been watching him. Her big eyes appeared even bigger, the book suddenly closing and falling to the floor as if it hadn't even been there in the first place. 

"Talk to you? Why would I want to talk to you?" Clary nervously asked. Her hand went to the single curl next to her face as she began to twirl her finger around it. "I'm just studying."

As Jace got closer to her, he took a seat in front, picking up the book she had been reading. It was a book she had read many times before. Almost too many times before. "Right. Or maybe you talked with Alec? I saw you guys having coffee this morning. A little bit out of character for both of you guys."

Swallowing, Clary knew she'd been caught. But was it really that big of a deal that she was watching Jace so closely? He had been acting strange lately, and it was her job as his sister to be concerned. That's all she was doing, was being concerned for him. "Alec was already having coffee and I happened to just join him. We really didn't talk about anything. He might've asked if I knew anything more about Valentine, but that's really it."  

Jace chuckled. Valentine, right. Alec would never speak to Clary about that, at least not alone. And if he did, it wouldn't have been over coffee. Jace knew that it had been something else, but he didn't know why Clary was lying to him. Jace shook his head. He knew that if he kept pushing her, there was no way that she would tell him the truth. He decided to stand up, going back to sparring. 

Clary felt bad. She could tell that lying to Jace wasn't helping, it was only hurting. "Jace, wait. Look, you were right. Okay ALec asked me to keep an eye on you. But it wasn't for anything bad. He's worried. We're both worried. And don't try and tell me you're fine, because you're not. Simon tried to tell me the same thing. Neither of you are fine though. Please just talk to me." By the time she had finished speaking, Clary was standing, walking closer to Jace. His face had turned hard, solid like a rock, but she could see the tears in his eyes. "Why are you crying, Jace? You have to tell me. You have to talk to me."

Jace shook his head. He was trying extremely hard to hold in his anger but he couldn't. The minute she mentioned him not being okay, and Simon not being okay, he had a small inkling of hope that maybe Simon wasn't okay for the same reasons. But there was no way, of course there was no way that Simon felt even remotely the same way about him that he did for the vampire. "Talk to you?" Jace said through gritted teeth. "How the hell am I supposed to talk to you when I can barely even tell myself what's happening Clary? What the hell do you want me to say? That I'm scared of Valentine? That I'm scared that I have feelings for someone that I shouldn't have? That I'm scared that the second I say it it'll become real? Because I can't talk about it Clary. I can't tell you how I feel because I don't even know how I feel!" He hadn't meant to raise his voice at her, but once he started, he  couldn't hold back. 

"If you can't talk to me then talk to someone else! Talk to Alec! He of all people know's what it's like to have feelings for someone you shouldn't be. Is it....is it Simon though? I mean, the person you have feeling for? Because every time you come into a room you both act like the other one doesn't exist. And not just because you don't like each other, it's more forced than that."

"Simon? You seriously think that I have feelings for Simon, Clary? I'm done here. I can't have this conversation." Jace turned away and began to walk out. 

"Then talk to Alec!" She yelled after him. She got no response but somehow she knew she'd at least made an impact. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm brand new to writing on here but feel free to leave comments and such to let me know how you feel about this! Also you can follow me on twitter @shadowhuntrash or tumblr shadowhunttrash.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm brand new to writing on here but feel free to leave comments and such to let me know how you feel about this! Also you can follow me on twitter @shadowhuntrash or tumblr shadowhunttrash.tumblr.com


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